How To Beat The Big R

The Predictability Of Resistance

Steven Pressfield has written many books where he talks about Resistance. These books include: Nobody Wants To Read Your Sh!t, The War Of Art, Turning Pro, The Artist’s Journey.

I’d recommend all these books.

If you’re taking the path less traveled with a business, as a writer, as an artist, or musician, then these books can help you see what lies ahead and help you overcome resistance.

So, what are the predictable stages of resistance?

1. Getting Started
2. The Middle
3. Finishing

Resistance Stage #1 - Getting Started

Getting started is always the most exciting time and possibly the most terrifying.

This is the blank page that I face every day. The moment when everything is still perfect, and I don't want to stamp on this beauty.

There is panic, and fear, and procrastination before you get started.

This is resistance, doing what it does best. It keeps us small.

How do I trample resistance? How do I beat the blank page?

I accept that the first draft of whatever I write is terrible, and the faster I can get the words down on the page the better.

With a first draft written, I can start the real work of editing.

Before I break the perfection of the blank page, my mind is overflowing with ideas about what I want to write. But they are jumbled and chaotic.

Writing is organized thought. So taking a flood of ideas and transforming them into a simple step-by-step process is always going to be hard. Would you agree?

It’s a process, and one that I don’t have to get right the first time. That’s the beauty of writing. No one sees my first drafts.

What turns terrible writing into something good? Work! Honesty! Courage!

When I edit my work, I use a fountain pen with red ink. The process can feel and look like I’ve taken a sword and left blood splattered across the page.

That’s the honesty. That’s the courage. That’s the work.

Repeat that process as many times as necessary (3 on a good day, 10 or more on a bad day) and you can polish your work to a high shine.

That’s how I beat the first stage of resistance. It’s not the only way and whatever way you use, it must get past perfection, fear, and procrastination with a flurry of activity.

Resistance Stage #2 – The Middle

Steven Pressfield describes the middle as the feeling when you’re sailing across the Atlantic when you can’t see land in any direction.

This is the point when you’re so far from the end that you’ll never think you’ll finish.

If you've ever created a workshop or online course, this is the part when you're halfway through writing the content when you start to ask yourself can I really teach this, or am I good enough, or what makes me different.

If you've ever created a product, this is the part when you've built the first prototype, or possibly your third or fourth prototype, and it's still not good enough. This is the point where you start to ask yourself was I crazy to think that I could do this?

If you've ever tried to write a book, this is when you are 20,000 words in, and you don't know if you can face another 5am start to make time to write. This is the point where you start to ask yourself if anyone is going to want to read it.

How do you beat resistance in the middle?

With habits!

The writers Steven Pressfield, Stephen King, and Liz Gilbert all talk about the muse. The supernatural being that sprinkles fairy dust on your work and transforms it from mortal to immortal.

Stephen King describes the muse as the guy in the corner smoking cigars.

There’s one thing these great writers have in common when talking about the muse, and that’s if you want the muse to show up, then you’ve got to let the muse know where you’ll be and when.

In other words, you’ve got to show up at the same time, in the same place, every single day.

If you do that for long enough, then eventually the muse will show up.

Personally, I live and die by the writing habit and an app called Be Focussed Pro.

There’s a productivity method called Pomodoro where you work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. You do this for 4 cycles before taking a 15-minute break. Then repeat this cycle as many times as necessary.

The app Be Focussed Pro alerts me to the focussed work and breaks. There is a free version of the app. I wanted the paid version so I could use it on multiple devices.

So, when I’m in the middle and can’t face another day digging in the coal mine of my mind, I ask myself a simple question, How badly do you want this?

That question makes me say to myself, just write for ONE Pomodoro.

What happens when I do that? I break the seal of perfection on my day and get to work. I never write for only one Pomodoro. Saying to myself “Just write for ONE Pomodoro” makes it a lot easier to get started.

This brings us on to the final stage of resistance…

Resistance Stage #3 – Finishing

This is the point where Resistance is at its’ strongest.

Why?

Because if you finish something, you'll show it to the world.

Getting 80% there is a comfortable place to be if you've got a solid work ethic. You can hand on heart, say to yourself and others how hard you’ve worked.

But…

None of that matters if you don’t finish.

In my humble opinion, there’s one thing that separates successful people from everyone else, and that is their ability to finish.

When you get out of your spectator seat and step into the boxing ring… you are going to take some body blows.

Every hit you take hurts more than you could imagine. And that's the privilege of being in the ring. It doesn't feel like much of a privilege. In fact, it hurts like hell.

And…

This is what makes winning taste so much sweeter.

You’ve worked for it. You’ve defeated your own demons of self-doubt and shrinking bank balances.

Steven Pressfield calls the vanquishing of your demons, Turning Pro. In the book by the same name, he talks about the first novel he wrote when he was 24 years old and how he got 90% through and then quit.

He then describes the moment 7 years later when he wrote his second novel. The fact that he could write the words The End made him a pro.

He never sold a single copy of that book, and today he can say, that’s because it wasn’t good enough.

And yet, he talks about the magic words The End being a threshold in his life.

Once Steven knew how to finish things he became a Pro. Until then he was an Amateur, or a Wannabe.

What did Turning Pro do for Steven Pressfield? It gave him the tools to keep going and eventually write The Legend of Bagger Vance, which made him $100 million.

How do I overcome the third stage of resistance?

With deadlines written in blood. With mountains of coffee. With habits.

What’s the worst thing about working for someone else? Unrealistic deadlines!

What’s the worst thing about working for yourself? Unrealistic deadlines!

There’s no getting away from deadlines. Without them (at least for me) we let Resistance win.

Working to a deadline can be stressful, but it doesn't have to be. If I'm working at the weekend, then I’ll often go to a beautiful coffee shop or hotel work.

After all, there’s no reason why working hard can’t feel good.

A change of scenery helps and I know I’m getting good work done. I’m beating resistance and finishing strong.

Finishing anything, no matter how big or small is a cause for celebration. Finishing makes you a winner. Make that a habit and amazing things will happen.

So, let’s finish where we started…

How Do You Beat The Big R

There’s one simple act that stamps on Resistance at each and every stage… and that is habits.

If you make it a habit to show up every day, no matter what, then you can beat resistance.

How do you beat all the distractions that come with a computer at any time of day or night?

You can get productivity apps that block out programs for a fixed period of time, or you can just use Be Focussed.

I love this app because working for 25 minutes doesn’t feel like a challenge. Then you can rest before you need to. This keeps you fresh and motivated. Plus, when an email comes in, you can see that your next break is in 10 minutes. This makes it easy to get back into focussed work because there’s nothing that’s so important that it can’t wait 10 minutes.

Now It’s Your Turn

Beating Resistance is a daily practice, and it never gets easier. Which is why we've got to find techniques to beat it. Techniques that don't require will power.

The beauty of habit is that they don’t require will power. Habits become what you do on a daily basis.

If your habit is you wake up before your family, make a cup of rocket fuel and then write for 2 hours, then you’ll surprise yourself with the quality and quantity of work that you create.

Remember if you want the guy with the cigars to show up, you’ve got to let him know where you’re going to be every day.

When there’s just the smell of freshly made coffee, the sound of the keyboard, and your mind running in all sorts of directions, without the distractions of email or Facebook. That’s when the magic happens. That’s when the guy with the cigars shows up.

If you've found this useful, then please leave a comment below.

If you know a business owner or service provider that is great at what they do and struggles to get their name out there, then please share this post with them.

Until next time…

Carpe diem

Roland Eva

P.S. if you'd like to build your dream business then you need a proven system to find your ideal customer, earn their trust, and make them feel good about buying.

After many, many failures, I’ve created a simple 5-step system to find people that need your help, to earn their trust, and to make them feel good about buying. This system made me £672,989 in just 9 days!

I’d like to give you a free ebook that reveals: how to use the simple 5-step system that made me £672,989 in just 9 days!

To download your free copy just click the link below:

http://bit.ly/FREEeBookTEIC